Establishment of Six Flags Over the Deconstruction of Sandtown

Development, both private and public, has played a crucial role in the knowledge that historians can take from the land, but the desire to build quickly ultimately destroyed many sites before they were properly studied. The Chattahoochee River, along with almost all the other rivers and streams in the Southeast, supported not only survival but civilization. Unfortunately, almost the entire catalog of scholarly sources regarding these places was written by men of European descent, and these writers rarely discuss the details regarding the fate of the sites that were destroyed in the name of industry. Sandtown was an almost mythic site of trade and occupation that existed consistently during many political border changes and shifting rules. Although left vacant for many years, the steady occupation of Sandtown over time left overwhelming evidence that this area was much more than a small Chiefdom or polity, but rather a site of cultural interaction and importance. This project will add to the literature on the subject by documenting the exploration, fight to preserve, and eventual destruction of Sandtown, which will provide an opportunity to better understand what happened to the history of this land.